So I pulled the plug on Facebook earlier today, which might seem a rather random action to those who follow me here and on Twitter. I gave no warning, I just went ahead and did it. Part of me feels a bit sad, and I’ll miss the ability to keep in touch with particular friends and family in the way that Facebook enabled. There are some things I won’t miss, as I’ll briefly explain.

Ownership of my information

So far as I can tell, WordPress currently only displays information about me that I choose to be there, when I choose for it to be there. I can delete and edit anything I like, when I like. I can move away from it to another site or system how and when I choose.

Twitter is perhaps a less-known quantity, even if it is currently my primary online social-networking tool. I can seek information when I choose, and it only displays on my profile what I choose to be there. Sure, people can mention me and I’ll appear on timelines in a different light than I might like. But in general I feel much more in control of the content I put there, and feel more able to trust what happens to that information.

Facebook has turned on many sharing features recently that have “leaked” things like contact information and relationships over the last few years, and each time has required me to jump through hoops to turn information feeds off to those to whom I’d rather remain just another face in the crowd. The news in recent days of facial recognition functionality being switched on without notice on the site itself was the final nail in the coffin. Yes, it’s only suggesting to people I know that I might be a person in their photo, but I’d rather have that functionality built into a computer operating system or web browser, based on information I’ve fed it, rather than have it as part of a bigger machine that can only make the functionality invisible to me.

On a more emotive level, there’s something more than a little creepy about a business that makes its money sharing and advertising to those who live their lives within reach of it.

Time is valuable

Various factors have come together recently that have conspired to help me learn to organise and use my time more effectively. Facebook was a time-sink for me, yet in the bigger scheme of things didn’t offer anything valuable in return.

Twitter has been a valuable resource for looking up realtime information about things happening around me, and has helped me engage with the local community in quite unexpected ways, especially when used in combination with blogs like this one.

WordPress has enabled some interesting conversations and interactions, and it seems that some posts have been informative to others facing similar situations to those I’ve described. I don’t claim to be a fount of all, or any knowledge – but my mistakes and lessons learned can help others in a way that status updates on Facebook just don’t hit.

Add to this that the Facebook interface had become generally feature-bloated and unreliable, especially on my phone, while things like email, blogs and Twitter carry on with their given functions with much greater efficiency and more tangible results.

Relationships are valuable

If I’m really set on keeping in touch with friends and family, then shouldn’t I be writing letters, picking up the phone, sending emails, sending photos or even arranging meets? Facebook is useful for all of these things in its way, but I don’t want such communications being owned by any company or entity other than myself and those I’m communicating with. When I send a letter, it doesn’t become the property of Royal Mail. They don’t sell copies of all or parts of the letters to advertisers. They don’t tell Amazon that they recently delivered an box of fluff to my door, so that Amazon can try to sell me books about that fluff.

And yes, it’s nice to be able to feel smug or angry about something and to share that with a select group of individuals, as I did so willingly on Facebook and will likely continue to do on Twitter. But I feel my relationships have suffered because Facebook was becoming the fount of knowledge about what I and those around me were getting up to, and I was willingly letting it stifle the very reason for those friendships and relationships to exist in the first place.

No, my personal relationships probably won’t get any better as a result of today’s decision, but at least I don’t have the ongoing Facebook conversations as the smug excuse for not spending time with or taking time for people.

So that’s the real killer issue for me – WordPress and Twitter have created real relationships with tangible output. Not always benefits, but experiences and genuine connections at some level. And that surely is what social media tools should enable?

6 thoughts on “Why I committed Facebook suicide.”

Facebook, Twitter and the other social media platforms allow for faux social interactions… When it comes right down to it, you don’t even know if your “friends” are real, or something manipulated by a 10-year old while his parents are away. Just like the photos of the women from “Ghana” that always show-up on Skype…

My account was hacked in December and a photo of some woman was posted that was linked to about 1,000 people. The boys at FB don’t seem to care if their operation is hacked, or not — I’m sure it’s in the “disclaimer.”

The only thing Social Media is good for is to have marketing companies and the government keep track of your every move. I’m older, but there was a time when the people would have rioted over the invasion of our privacy — now they let companies like FaceBook have it no questions asked.

The best place to get “Linked In” is to go to your local religious center or volunteer with a community program. Leave the electronics at home… Better yet — leave them at work.

The movie about FaceBook, The Social Network, should have been called “Laughing All the Way to the Bank.”

Ha! Ironically i couldn’t share this on facebook as I’ve disabled my platforms! Matt’s shut down his account, I stay active due to having two teenage daughters loose on it and having no other way of knowing whether they have an account (they could, for all i know have several as facebook doesn’t monitor the way underage profiles are used) or who is wanting to be friends with them and messaging them. I’ve always shared your links about security issues, shut down stuff etc.. but i don’t like the blatant selling of people’s info. It’s a pity people don’t wake up to the fact that it’s a money-making exercise for the benefit of the owners and the advertisers and the third parties they sell your information to without you realising you gave them permission. But over a barrel when it comes to monitoring your children’s activity, as they aren’t terribly savvy. Otherwise I think I’d be gone too, to be fair. Vanessa (Bailey)

Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you
know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think
its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers
and both show the same outcome.

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